That Bruce Willis and Jennifer Aniston didn’t kiss was a surprise even to seasoned journalists. In December 2000, Rolling Stone asked Willis about the experience of kissing her, and he had to explain. “It’s the illusion of a kiss. I actually didn’t kiss her. I kissed her on the cheek,” he said. Willis was the one who told producers he wouldn’t do any kissing scenes with Aniston. It had nothing to do with her. “I would’ve liked to,” he shared.
Instead, it had everything to do with whom Aniston was with. When the episodes Willis starred in came out between April and May 2000, Aniston was engaged to Brad Pitt. They tied the knot just a couple of months later, in July. It turns out that Willis and Pitt were close, so he felt a sense of loyalty toward him. “You know, Brad’s a friend of mine. And Jennifer’s his wife. It just didn’t seem appropriate. But she’s a babe,” Willis said.
Willis and Pitt’s paths had crossed just a few years earlier when they shared the screen in the 1995 Terry Gilliam dystopia “12 Monkeys.” The film took Pitt’s career to new heights, earning him his first Oscar nom and Golden Globe win. The film similarly showed a subdued facet of tough-guy Willis. While Willis’ friendship with Pitt kept him from kissing Aniston, it was his friendship with another “Friends” star that landed him the role to begin with.
